Neighbour sent man’s wife revenge porn pictures

CHRISTMAS cards will be scant at one Tweed street this year after a woman admitted sending her neighbour revenge porn.

The Pottsville woman, aged in her 40s, sent the material after the neighbour's husband ended a 10-month fling with her.

The man had sent his mistress explicit images and video of himself.

Documents lodged in the Tweed Local Court allege the scorned lover verbally abused the woman by driving past her home in a "slow, deliberate manner" and made numerous offensive comments and gestures in public.

She was also accused of yelling abuse on 30 occasions, including insults directed at the couple's children.

It was alleged the man did not intend for the images to be shared with his wife.

It is believed that the woman intended to share the images to inflict "significant emotional harm" and disrupt the couple's relationship.

The man had sent his mistress explicit videos and pictures of himself.

The woman's actions caused the man to make an application for an apprehended domestic violence order because he feared she would continue to harass him and potentially resort to physical harm, it was alleged.

The woman pleaded guilty to the offence in the Tweed Local Court yesterday. Defence lawyer Sophie Dagg, of Go To Court Lawyers, said her client knew she should never had sent the images to the man's wife.

Ms Dagg said the woman shared the images because the man's wife had asked her to.

She said her client had shared the material to show the man had "a part to play" in the affair.

Magistrate Geoff Dunlevy sentenced the woman to a two-year community correction order and enforced an apprehended domestic violence order.

Mr Dunlevy noted the offence had been recently created.

The laws came into force in NSW in 2017 with offenders facing up to three years jail time and $11,000 fines.

The laws also make it an offence to threaten to distribute intimate images and were designed to protect victims against controlling behaviour in abusive relationships.

The Non-Consensual Sharing of Intimate Images Amendment Bill 2018 has progressed to its second reading stage and is due to be debated again in coming months.

If the bill passes into law each of the new offences will have a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

Revenge porn laws are still before parliament.

Threats to distribute intimate images or videos without the consent of the person depicted would also become offences under the bill.

"This is about sending a very clear message to those people who think sharing, or threatening to share, an intimate image of another person without their consent is acceptable," Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D'Ath said in the bill's explanatory speech last year.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made a commitment to introduce stronger protection for victims, including a new offence to include even the threat of exposing images without consent during her 2017 election campaign.